National Guard Heads to Portland: Trump is deploying two hundred members of the Oregon National Guard to “war ravaged” Portland to “protect” immigration enforcement officers and government buildings from largely peaceful protesters. A memo from the newly-Christened “Department of War” said the deployment would last 60 days, and compared it to the federal intervention in Los Angeles in June. But unlike in LA, where 700 active-duty Marines patrolled the streets for a month, it does not appear that Trump or Hegseth are currently sending active-duty troops to the state. Oregon’s Attorney General has already sued.
Why Is Trump Obsessed with Portland: Theoretically, he’s doing this because protesters have been giving a local ICE facility an earful for months now. And because of that, Trump had already deployed extra federal agents into the city last week. According to our sister paper in Portland, the Mercury, those agents have been instigating clashes with protesters.
The Real Reason Is Worse: The Trump Administration probably does care about the ICE facility protests, but according to Politico’s reporting, their obsession with Portland has less to do with the protests right now, and much more to do with the protests in 2020. Portland’s BLM protests that summer lasted 170 days and, like Seattle, the national media were obsessed with the images of looting and fire. Now, “the White House views Portland as a useful example in its law-and-order campaign—a city Trump officials can elevate to push forward their message on everything from immigration to crime to far-left violence,” Politico reported. But also, they occurred five years ago. We’ll be watching this closely, and sharing reporting from Portland Mercury throughout the week.
Meanwhile: Federal law enforcement—masked and in full tactical gear—are patrolling the streets in Chicago, and Memphis is bracing for the same. This isn’t normal. Don’t get used to it.
Shooting at a Michigan LDS Church: On Sunday, crashed his car through the front door of Mormon church and opened fire, killing at least four people and injuring eight more. Authorities believe he also set the building on fire with an accelerant, and they found three rudimentary explosive devices at the scene. The shooter, Thomas Jacob Sanford, was killed by police, and there’s been no talk of motive, yet. We do know that Sanford went to high school nearby and served in the Marines. This is at least the fifth shooting at a religious institution in the last year.
The Weather: We’re starting a proper run of rain this week. Expect drizzly days until Sunday, and maybe some thunderstorms at the beginning of the week.
I Love the Smell of Rubber in the Morning: Ash Grove Cement Company—the giant grey facility that you can’t miss from 99 or the West Seattle Bridge—burns 1.2 million tires a year. Tires make up about 30 percent of its fuel supply to fire its kiln, which is the maximum they’re allowed. But they want more tire fires! So they’ve asked the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency to lift the limit on the number of tires they can burn. The company insists that there will be no increase in their emissions. The Duwamish River Community Coalition called bullshit, and has called for more research before the permit is granted.
Have you seen the new Katie Wilson flyer campaign? I like to think the face of Honey Bucket would be proud.
Get Poked: The new COVID vaccine is still available in Washington State at no out-of-pocket expense, and without proof of insurance in most places. If your local pharmacy requires that you say you are at high risk, the Seattle Times reports that “people should ‘absolutely feel confident’ in saying they qualify for a COVID shot, according to Jenny Arnold, CEO of the Washington State Pharmacy Association and who sits on the state’s vaccine advisory committee. Including those who are under 65 and aren’t at high risk of developing severe disease from COVID? ‘Just say yes,’ Arnold said.” COVID is awful. And we have a real, practical way to protect ourselves, our friends, and our neighbors. And while you’re at it, get your flu shot too.
Wide-Eyed and Jacked: After shutting down more than 100 stores, including the incredibly popular Capitol Hill Roastery, Starbucks has a new trick of its sleeve: adding protein to your coffee. The homegrown burnt coffee chain is now offering to blend whey protein into your milk, adding 19 to 36 grams of protein to the drink. For the average adult, that’s basically a whole day’s worth of protein.
Paris Hilton Visits Seattle, Pisses off SLU: Last week, famous person Paris Hilton DJ’d a party in a penthouse apartment in South Lake Union. There were strobe lights. There were subwoofers. And apparently Seattleites had the pleasure of seeing, hearing, and feeling them as far away as Queen Anne. That’s hot.
Okay that wasn’t a gentle start to the week, so let’s end with something nice. Here’s a little city pop for your morning.
“On Sunday [sic], crashed his car through the front door of Mormon temple and opened fire, killing at least four people and injuring eight more.”
“On Sunday” might be the most unusual name I’ve ever seen. Of what ethnic origin is that?
I’m sure that this Thomas Jacob Sanford guy, in his MAGA shirt that literally says “Make Liberals Cry Again” on it, was probably trans and wrote “I am antifa as fuck.” on the bullet casings… right, Biped?
Probably trans too, I bet! Or at least he met a trans person once and it infected his brain and made him murder people or something? That’s how it works, right? Guys? Guys? Right?
He’s certainly not ANOTHER straight white right winger who decided just to kill people for no reason, is he? Couldn’t possible be.
@1 Definitely focus on a typo and not the fact that it was another of you right wing idiots that killed a bunch of people for no reason.
How will Katie Wilson prevent another typically Seattle waste of money and literal public disgusting mess like the last time Seattle installed public toilets?
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/us/17toilets.html
Seattle to Remove Automated Toilets
July 17, 2008
SEATTLE – After spending $5 million on its five automated public toilets, Seattle is calling it quits.
In the end, the restrooms, installed in early 2004, had become so filthy, so overrun with drug abusers and prostitutes, that although use was free of charge, even some of the city’s most destitute people refused to step inside them.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/seattles-5-million-automated-public-toilets-sold-for-12000/
Seattle’s $5 million automated public toilets sold for $12,000
August 16, 2008
Seattle’s $5 million, high-tech public toilets finally sold on eBay — to a Thurston County company that paid $12,000.
Seattle has officially washed its hands of the five self-cleaning toilets.
The toilets cost the city $5 million. They sold on eBay Thursday evening for $12,549.
All five were sold to Racecar Supply, of Rochester, in Thurston County, with winning bids ranging from $1,625 to $4,899 per commode, said Pat Miller, spokesman for Seattle’s Fleets and Facilities Department. “What a buy,” said Racecar Supply owner Butch Behn. “Wouldn’t you think it’s a really good deal, considering what they paid for them? It was a gift.”
…
The high-tech public toilets, with sanitizing water jets and automatic doors, were installed in 2004 to accommodate tourists and transients in Pioneer Square, Capitol Hill, the central waterfront, Pike Place Market and the Chinatown International District. But the city canceled its contract this spring after the commodes became filthy hide-outs for drug use and prostitution.
The city tried to sell the toilets on eBay in July, but nobody coughed up the $89,000 minimum bid. In its second attempt, which closed Thursday, the city offered no minimum, and 148 bids were cast.
@2 & 3:
I condemn Thomas Jacob Sanford in the strongest possible terms. He should be publicly executed by a firing squad as soon as possible. I’m sure you’re okay with that punishment, right?
For the sake if accuracy, the shooting occurred in a Mormon church, not a temple. Mormon churches are where congregants gather for general services in larger numbers, while the temples are reserved for specific ceremonies, such as marriages, and are much more exclusive and unlikely to have more than a few dozen folks there at any one time.
@1 & 5: You know if you clutch that straw any tighter you’re going to do yourself an injury. And stop being silly about firing squads. You just sound desperate.
Of* accuracy
Lol irony
@3 girl, your fingers are working for the opposition.
@5 No …I don’t think that’s a great punishment.
…Because he’s already dead, you fucking dumb dumb.
@1:
Not sure about the first name “On”, but “Sunday” is derived from the old English “Sunnandaeg”, which itself is a tranlation of the Latin “dies solis” (“day of the Sun”). So, in all likelihood the shooter was white and of northern and/or central European extraction; you know, just like the overwhelming majority of mass-shooters in this country.
‘murder
our way to
peace,’ bippie?
ya don’t
gotta be a
Genius to be
a RWNJ do ya
@11 Don’t say Latin to Biped or he’ll try to get them deported.
FWIW, I have some relatives who live in and around Grand Blanc, MI. It’s a suburb of Flint, and is relatively white, wealthy, and conservative. It’s interesting to watch one of my cousins on FB. He’s a preacher at a fundie church and had a lot of stuff out about helping people in his community deal with the Charlie Kirk murder. When it’s religious-directed violence inside a 20-mile radius, he’s been conspicuously silent. The dog that didn’t bark, and all that.
@13 They only care when one of their own dies and they can use it to make a political statement against minorities/trans people. When it’s normal people or kids or poor people, they don’t give a shit. You know… the way Jesus would have wanted it.
My favorite part of the bible was when Jesus got crucified and then his wife came out on stage to WWE fireworks, sold a bunch of merchandise and then immediately took over his podcast two weeks later while smiling like nothing bad had happened. So inspiring.
@10 – Sanford was killed by police gunfire eight minutes after the initial 911 call
so almost the same difference
I knew you would show your ass haha
@16 Don’t you have anymore children you’ve literally never seen to be racist toward in the I, Anonymous comments?
Christians hating Christians is so last millennium. But of course, depending on who you ask, Mormons and Catholics aren’t Christian, so what happened yesterday doesn’t count.
@16: Babe, BABE! The only ass on display this morning is yours. The news cycle is not in your favor today so just take a break.
@18 Mormons are the ones that put coffee creamer in their soda and think that sticking your penis in a girl but not moving it around doesn’t actually count as sex and the Catholics are the ones that have an elaborate underground network of priests who literally rape thousands little kids and never get in trouble for it despite everyone in the world knowing about it, right? Sometimes I get them confused.
…newly-Christened “Department of War”…
Well played.
@14 I was tempted to poke my cousin about that, but then I realized it wouldn’t do any good, so no point.
@20: lol pretty sure every religion has a long a storied past regarding the exploitation of minors the Mormons included for SURE, but that’s not what Catalina is referring to. Many Protestants don’t consider Catholics or Mormons (and often even other Protestant denominations) as actual Christians. This goes waaaaaaay back. As a matter of fact there was a big push against the ecumenical movement (different faiths working together) back in the 70s because, for one thing, fundamentalists considered the Catholic Church to be the Whore of Babylon. There was even a song on I think Jimmy Swaggart’s show (I could be wrong) about it in which they listed all the religions with chorus being ” guess they’ll invite the devil too into the ecumenical movement”
I mean I get you hate the Catholics too but let’s be fair. 🙂
“never get in trouble for it despite everyone in the world knowing about it, right?”
I won’t dispute that there is a Catholic church child molestation issue, which is a time-honored tradition that all the Christian faiths hold dear and engage in, but I’d hardly say that they haven’t gotten in trouble for it. In the US alone, they’ve paid out more than four billion dollars since 1980.
But my point – which was apparently lost on you – is that Christians fighting Christians is nothing new. In fact, this country was in part founded on freedom from the religious nonsense that had plagued Europe for centuries. Ironically, because of that freedom from religion, religions have thrived in the USA. But now that they see people walking away in disgust because the clergy has largely been populated by hucksters, they are getting desperate.
Notably, Mormons reject the concept of the Trinity, that God is three but one. Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God the Father are three separate divine entities that work as one. Islam also rejects the Trinity as polytheism (yet ironically holds the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to nigh divine reverence). Upon converting Rome to Christianity, Emperor Constantine forced the church leaders under armed guards to decide what books and concepts to include in the Bible at the Conferences of Nicaea, including on what to make of the three-but-one Godhead. Schisms already were present then, with Arius and his followers being defeated and outcast, and the Nicaean Creed becoming what we all mumble in protestant services without a clue why.
Right there in Genesis is gang rape, Lot offering his minor virgin daughters to the Sodomites instead of his guests, who later after he flees with God’s warning turns his wife who looks back into a pillar of salt. Then his daughters, lamenting that they will not be able to continue their bloodline, get their aging father drunk so they can have his kids and they both essentially rape him into pregnancy. And everyone hates Canaanite women so all of Abraham’s children need to bang their half sister or cousin in order to keep their descendants as numeral as the stars in the sky. And that’s just the first book of Genesis! The Old Testament is hardcore as shit and they sure as fuck leave a lot of the literal details out of the source material when retelling the roots of the faith. It’s more like Alex Delarge in A Clockwork Orange seeing himself as all those crazy fuckers in the good book, cause hot damn that’s some adult reading for sure and is fucked up as can be. Jesus tap dancing Christ!
@24 Because nothing says “I’m really in deep trouble.” like the organization you work for paying a fine and then paying for you to move to another city to molest a whole new group of children. lol.
And freedom of religion is a joke when it’s printed on our money and our children are forced to stand and salute while saying “Under God” every single morning lol.
@27 “…our children are forced to stand and salute while saying “Under God” every single morning”
The Cold War broke America, in a number of ways, and now we’re all just playing out the string
The Mormons’ peculiar doctrines place them outside the Protestant tradition, but they’re still Christians: they believe Jesus voluntarily submitted to an unjust execution and that his self-sacrifice benefited humankind in some way (specifics vary by denomination). That’s really all the term requires.
@4 The answer is, you hire attendants, like the city did for the new restrooms at Overlook Walk. It’s not rocket science.
@27: Again it ain’t JUST the Catholics. Any patriarchal religion is rife with men (mostly) in power taking advantage of that power and privilege in horrific ways and covering it up.
You have SUCH a bee in your bonnet about ONE particular religion when it’s pretty much all of them.
@11, And male. A female mass killer is a unicorn.
@26, A bit inside baseball for everyone else, but the concept of hospitality and obligations to protect guests you chose to allow into your dwelling, was very absolute at the time. It is still a strong part of Bedouin culture to this day.
Viewed in that context, Lot’s offer of his daughters becomes a misplaced interpretation of his absolute obligation to protect visitors admitted to his home. It doesn’t make it any less immoral, but it helps to understand that his household had an obligation under the customs of the day to fight to the death, rather than surrender a visitor they had invited into their house.
Lot’s failure was offering only certain members (the most vulnerable and powerless) of his household in protection of his visitors rather than all of his household.
We need to have background checks for sales of gasoline and the items at a hardware store that anyone can purchase to fashion I.E.D.’s If that saves one life, its worth it. How many would still be alive in Michigan if we had such sensible restrictions on the purchase of such otherwise lawful, and peacefully used, items.
@13: “… he’s been conspicuously silent”
It’s only been a couple of days. Have you had a conversation?
@20: “literally rape thousands little kids and never get in trouble for it despite everyone in the world knowing about it, right”
Yep, just like Bacha bazi!
Not sure the Oregon Guard aren’t considered “active-duty troops.” They just returned from a year-long deployment as peacekeepers in Kosovo. Not exactly “National Guard weekend” stuff.
Catholics and Protestants (and Orthodox) are all branches of Christianity. If you belong to any of them, you are a Christian – it’s that simple.
Mormons are Protestants.
This argument of “are you catholic or Christian” is tired and dumb. Also the first Christian church was the Catholic Church technically anyway.
Lastly, you don’t need to capitalize “christen” as it has nothing to do with religion or Christ.
Thank you, Hannah, for Annie Lennox and the Eurythmics’ killer hit, Here Comes the Rain Again.
Just what I needed! 🙂
@7 Lissa: I’m wondering when Bioopsy (@1 &@5) will get so wound up with priapism and dysentery from Taco Donaldo worship he wildly blows out both ends. 5….4…..3…..2….
@26 CDizzle: Wow. And people wonder why I’m an atheist.
Bmelon dear, if it were only that simple. Unfortunately, Institutions have been built, wars have been fought, fortunes have been built and lost on the topic of who is and is not “Christian”. Perhaps you were fortunate enough to be raised Christianity-free?
Even in this country, as young as it is, Mormon settlers (who were largely not nice people) were persecuted by other Christians. Anti-Catholic sentiment helped fuel bigotry of Irish, German, and Italian immigrants.
All of the Abrahamic religions are deeply messed up and a burden on humanity, but the Christian wing is patricularly toxic.
@39: Ditto Islam
@30 Of course there are pedophiles in every religion… but there’s Pulitzer Prize winning documented proof that the Catholic church knows about it and has covered it up. Find me undeniable documented proof that the Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons and Scientologists and everyone else do the same thing. I’ll wait.
@41: What “same thing” are you referring to? If you assign me a task, you need to be coherent.
@41: Have you never heard of Warren Jeffs? And the continued issue of small towns along the Utah border run by Mormon fundamentalists? In which girls as young as 10 are married off to adults? If you want a documentary on that shit show watch Prophet’s Prey. Th mainline LDS church knows all about it and yet…
Coolidge, dear, Islam is an Abrahamic religion. Do try to keep up….